The Plane Ride

I made eye contact with Kenneth and saw Lilith only seconds later as she sat down beside him. I knew we had to pretend to be strangers so that was what I did.

Avoiding eye contact with Kenneth any further and not even looking in Oskar's direction, I placed my small bag in the overhead and shoved Halvor to the window seat. With him almost slamming his face into the wall, we got sat down and comfortable for the ride.

I pulled out my phone and sent an emoji that was blank faced and staring back at me and Kenneth's messages. I sent a separate message to Halvor, telling him of our seating arrangements, he looked up from his phone and nodded. I stared back, not wanting it to look like we agreed on a plan. Being accused of planning something on a plane was not on my bucket list and it certainly still isn't on it right now.

Halvor dug around in his backpack, pulling out an old looking book with a leather bound cover. I rolled my eyes at Halvor and took out my phone. I located the nearest search engine and found some articles on The Seven Gates of Hell. I could see Halvor peeking from the corner of his book, beaming from ear to ear at the fact I was researching. I wanted to sigh at his nerdiness, maybe Jessica's friend would be nice for him.

I decided to pull up videos over Hell and its build up overall. Halvor pointed out a video essay over Dante's Inferno, the story he mentioned when Mindy was taken through the mirror.

The YouTuber in the thumbnail was chill in it and a full face of hair, as if he was trying to deter the idea that he might be a werewolf with his Hawaiian shirt. The Wendigo diagram in the background gave me a sneaking suspicion that he might know what he's talking about, I mean, werewolves and demons were real, Hell has to be at this point.

Halvor leaned in with a whisper, "I know many churches and other sources don't claim Dante's work as word but if you take the time to read in the bible, Jesus came down and saved the people that were before him and knew not of God, cracking Hell and splitting it as he saved them and went to Heaven."

"But you did just say many churches discredited Dante on his work. Is it possible that Dante was just reading the same parts of the bible in an Italian version and so that gets some of the details jumbled up on our end? I mean, the bible was nowhere close to English when it was first written if you think about it. Didn't like a King James have the bible translated?" I spouted, a brainstorm of thoughts pouring out once one idea lead to another.

He paused, he was now wearing a lost look, one similar to when someone sits down and asked themselves why a word sounded weird after saying it in a sentence over and over.

Then like a light switch, he switched up his demeanor.

He grabbed my shoulders in a distressed manner, "If that part is true than what else is true? What else is being spoon fed to us with lies?" He shook my shoulders with emphasis, his eyes now had a crazed and disturbed appearance to them, "How would you explain that, Linsday? Huh?!" Halvor stopped shaking my shoulders and still had the look of a scientist that was begging for the last number that was needed for something important, like his life's work depended on it. Halvor stared into my eyes, searching desperately for an answer to such a vague yet packed question.

I stared back in confusion, a weird cocktail of being spooked by his sudden question and emotions of it and questioning everything in the universe as I knew it came with this said confusion. I didn't know, I couldn't know the answer that every God fearing person asks themselves everyday. I never knew those emotions, but with the reality of werewolves and demons, maybe it was time to question everything I knew.

I felt a tear trickle down my cheek, in response. Halvor's eyes softened for a second as I wiped my face.

I stare at him for a second, the setup felt like a shitty Hallmark movie where the main girl gets kissed and everything is alright again. I punched Halvor in the shoulder for making it happen instead.

Halvor held his shoulder in pain, "Oow, what was that for?"

I clicked on the video he recommended as I pulled out a tissue from my pocket, "Asshole."

I waited for the ads to play through and the YouTuber to get through his intro so I was in the loop. As the essay started, Halvor sent me texts about articles and things that seemed somewhat related to our cause.

I sighed, it seemed today was a research day.

"And as always, thank you for watching." The YouTuber wore a glow in his face due to being able to do video essays on YouTube and actually getting decent views. I just hoped I wasn't going to be quizzed on the next hour and a half of information this brunette lock blessed man was going to dump on me. Strangely enough, he never tried to hype himself up, he never tried to oversell himself, he just told the story as it was in a way anyone could understand.

With the YouTuber talking in the background, I searched the web for anything over the Seven Gates of Hell. I found the Wikipedia article and one other website that both told the same story.

"Two versions of the legend exist, one involving a burnt insane asylum and the other an eccentric doctor. Both agree that there are seven gates in a wooded area of Hellam Township, Pennsylvania, and that anyone who passes through all seven goes straight to Hell. The location in question never housed an institution; the aforementioned doctor only constructed one gate, to keep out trespassers. Despite the popularity of this as a tourist destination, the property is privately held; visitors may be charged with trespassing as a result."

I dove deeper into the wiki page, the two legends were the same on the one other website as well, both somewhat debunking the "myths". The asylum was said to have been built in the 1900s and the gates were to keep them in, but there never was an asylum to begin with. If there ever was, it burnt to the ground and the ones that escaped were beaten to death. The part about the doctor was said to just be a man that made signs to keep people out. The movie title Halvor mentioned was from the road's name of the same thing.

The Toad Road, or The Trout Run Road, the path to the Seven Gates of Hell, the first was the only one to be seen during the day. Everyone claims the other six shows themselves during the night. I sighed and turned off the YouTube video, it became a nuisance more than useful as I read.

It was somewhat funny to read that the doctor would make toad related humor on the said signs. Another funny fact was that everyone believed Hellam was named after Hell but it was actually named after Hallam, of Hallamshire, England. But one fact that wasn't funny was that you're supposed to go insane with each passing gate.

I exhaled, maybe shrooms would help me with this journey.

The plane started to heavily shake, we were landing. I definitely felt like I needed the shrooms now when my ears popped.

(Credit to information about The Seven Gates of Hell from the Wikipedia article over it.)